Monday, July 31, 2017

You’ve Got Character(s)! By Judi Kauffman for The Queen’s Ink

Get
ready to get silly! This project is all about drawing with rubber stamps. The
recipe is as easy as pie. Easier, actually. There are only five ingredients:
RubberMoon’s Stampstracts 2 stamp set by Kae Pea, cardstock, black ink, markers,
and assorted embellishments.

1. Get
out the Stampstracts 2 stamp set and assorted acrylic blocks for temporarily
mounting them. Using marker-compatible black ink, practice stamping wonky,
whimsical animals and characters on cheap, lightweight paper. Don’t worry about
masking, don’t aim for perfection. Let the images overlap while you invent ways
to create faces, arms, legs, wings, feet, hats, wings and more. In other words,
‘draw’ with the stamps. The photo above shows my six favorites and these
samples do include some masking, but you won’t need masking till step 3.

2. Once
you’re pleased with several of the characters, practice adding hand-drawn
elements. This step is shown in RED within the samples in the gallery; I drew
with a fat marker so the additions are easy to see. When you do this step,
however, use a pencil so you can erase and revise. At this point, you’re still practicing.

3. Now
it’s time for the ‘real thing’. Stamp directly onto folded note cards or
cardstock rectangles, masking as needed. Instead of using a pencil for the additional
line work, use a fine nib black marker. (Samples shown are A2 size. Use larger
size cards for bigger and taller animals and characters or if you want more
than one per card.)